Molly was a jewelry major at UGA and hand made both her and Matt’s wedding rings!  Seriously amazing right?  Other awesomeness in this picture?  The ring pillows were also hand made by a friend of Molly’s – even the hand embroidery!

Engraving that Molly hand stamped in Matt’s ring!  So sweet!

More handmade goodness…yep!  Those ties are custom made as well!

Molly found her dress in an antique store!  It’s a 1920′s vintage party dress in almost perfect condition…and she only paid $89!  Bargain of the century!  I believe so!

Holy talented friends!  More handmade goodness in the hair accessories and earrings!

Molly and her sisters are all married!!

This crow knew how to party!

Molly breaking it down!

Perfect Southern ending to a wedding when it involves Krispy Kreme!

Days 1-5

The BEST friends a girl could ask for got to hang out!  I am incredibly close with 6 other photographers who live all over…literally!  Gulf Shores, AL – Dallas, TX – San Diego, CA – Portland, OR – Edmonton, Canada and Ottawa, Canada!  Seriously I am blessed beyond measure to call each of them my friend!  We try to get together at least once a year in one of our hometowns and explore the area as well as save plenty of time for girl talk!  You might remember my Portland trip in August….this time it was San Diego!  We started our trip with a day at Coronado.  So pretty and such history!

The next day we did Disneyland…and we did it right!  We got to the park at 9am and didn’t leave until midnight!  15 hours STRAIGHT baby!  As we walked in the gates we were skipping down the street…when we left we were bending over…stretching our backs…rubbing our knees…we were exhausted but had the time of our lives!

The rest of the weekend we went shopping, ate lots of yummy food, watched a few sunsets and in general just had lots of girl time.  It is so awesome to be with a bunch of friends where you click on so many levels.  Yes, we had our fair share of nerdy photographer talk, but most of the weekend was spent talking about husbands, kids, dating (me!), things going on in our lives, and already talking about our next time we’ll get together!  Love these girls!

We did fit in a little time for a photoshoot – THIS is what happens when 7 photographers that are usually BEHIND the camera get together and decide to try and take a nice portrait and be on the other side of the lens…things turn CRAZY!  Told ya we have fun doing ANYTHING!

Days 6-11

All of my girls left on Monday, but I stayed behind to hang out with Shari and her family for the rest of the week!  She has two precious little girls (5 year old twins) that I totally “used” to get to have more fun!  Wednesday we decided to take a walk and enjoy some of the gorgeous California scenery!  Seriously…isn’t this amazing!?  And…Shari and I had a hot date together!  :-P

Friday we went back to Disney…so amazing to see Disney again but through children’s eyes.  They just LIT up when they saw the princesses….so incredibly adorable! And I got to meet Mickey!

Friday brought Sea WORLD!!!  One of my favorite places E.V.E.R.!  There is something just so magical about marine animals…they make my heart smile!  A great time was had by all!

Saturday, Shari, her husband Travis and I went on a hike at Torrey Pines!  The trail leads to the Pacific Ocean and ends in amazing views!  We don’t get rock cliffs and scenery like this in GA!  Who wants to get married here?  I would LOVE to shoot a wedding with these views!  Incredible!

I leave tomorrow and while I’m sad to leave San Diego, I’m also glad to get back to GA and get back into the swing of things…wedding season…HERE I COME!

SUNSHINE

WILDFLOWERS

FRUIT

Kathy’s dad is a pilot and owns a plane, and so we decided it would be incredibly cool to use it as a prop for their engagement pictures since Kathy and Mike LOVE to travel together!  What I didn’t know was just how amazing this session was going to be.  I brought my awesome friend and Portland photographer Amber Anderson along and as soon as we got there Kathy’s sweet dad asked us if we wanted to see Portland/Washington from the air!  Um…yes please!  I have never flown in a small airplane before and it was an incredible experience!  We got to see 5 mountain peaks including Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainer, and Mt. Saint Helens…breathtaking!  Thank you so much to Kathy, her father Jim, and the whole family for this amazing adventure!

Now onto the pictures!  First…a few from up in the air…then…the engagement session!  Hope you love them as much as I do!

Mt. Saint Helens on the left an I think Mt. Adams on the right…

]]> http://berrytreephotography.com/2011/08/destination-engagement-portland-or-kathy-mike-berrytree-photography/feed/ 4 http://berrytreephotography.com/2011/08/lake-lanier-islands-atlanta-ga-jillian-chris-berrytree-photography-wedding-photography/ http://berrytreephotography.com/2011/08/lake-lanier-islands-atlanta-ga-jillian-chris-berrytree-photography-wedding-photography/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:41:34 +0000 BerryDear3 http://berrytree.photographyblogsites.com/?p=900 Jillian and Chris were married at The Venetian Pier at Lake Lanier Islands.  They are both in the Air Force and live in New Mexico, so when I showed up at the wedding, it was the first time we had met!  Let me tell you what a delight they both were!  Jillian and Chris both have fantastic families and their love just flowed the entire day.  My favorite part of the day was when Grandpa sang a song to them that he had sang to his wife on their 50th Anniversary…seriously, one of the SWEETEST moments ever!  (see pictures below!)  Jillian and Chris, thanks for having me to capture your day…I felt like part of the family by the end of the evening!  Enjoy!

Hans releasing some pre-wedding jitters with a bit of fun!

I asked the girls to come up with their own “silly” pose…they channeled their inner cheesy 80′s music video selves!

The ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp. tea tree oil

• this has a very strong odor and can be omitted if the odor bothers you, but I love the benefits it provides (see below)
• 1 tbsp. Vitamin E oil
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• approx. 10 oz. olive oil

(I also added some drops of a “home fragrance oil” from Bath and Body Works…normally something you would put in a diffuser and burn…to help mask the smell of the tea tree oil.  An essential oil would probably have been a better choice, but this is what I had in the house and really…it was so little compared to the amount of sugar I was using I didn’t think it would matter much!)

ok…so I started with an old mason jar from my grandmother’s house – I just love these jars…they make me smile…so why not!  This is a 1 Quart jar and this recipe fills the jar perfectly!  (I would break it into MUCH smaller (4-8oz jars) if you are making this for a gift!)

next…mix the brown and regular sugar together until smooth

add tea tree oil, Vitamin E oil, vanilla extract, and any other “smell good” items you want to add.  Here’s a good time to answer…why tea tree oil and Vitamin E oil?  Because they are AWESOME for your skin!

some of the benefits of tea tree oil:

• general disinfectant that fights bacteria in all kinds of wounds and infections
• treats fungal diseases
• helps skin to heal by by encouraging the formation of new scar tissue
• gives relief from muscular pain, aches, sprains

some of the benefits of Vitamin E:

• strong antioxidant that prevents premature aging
• prevents and repairs free radical damage
• has anti-inflammatory properties
• used to treat sunburns
• prevents water loss from the skin and helps to retain its natural moisture

next…add olive oil to wet the mixture.  I didn’t measure…just poured until the sugar mixture was wet and there was a LITTLE extra olive oil.  If I had to guestimate I would say I used about 10 oz. of olive oil.

scoop into your jar!  It will look like the below…a bit lumpy…just put the lid on and shake the jar and it will even all of that out!
Then…you are D.O.N.E. – DONE!

for my final step I threw a ribbon and some yarn around the jar to just pretty it up!  Use your wedding colors and decorate away!